CTO Protocols

...and another thing about Albania: why did Scott screw up the issuing order? And why have they not corrected it? It's a mess in 1960.

I know that Chinese collectors prefer CTO stamps to those which have gone through the mail - they then want the gum on the CTO stamps to be in perfect condition so there is considered to be a loss of value if the CTO stamp is hinged. But that's just their perspective, and I think it probably has to do with lower paper stiffness on their envelopes, less automation during cancelling (meaning more frequent sloppy handstamps) and more damage caused by bends and scrapes during the mail handling process (just my guess, though). Luckily for the rest of us, we don't have such rules about CTO stamps. There isn't much in the western world that is said specific to CTO stamps other than generalized notes in the catalogues which say that stamps with postal cancellations are worth "more" than CTO stamps (but you have to guess how much more). Michel's Germany Specialized catalogue does list specific prices for CTO East German stamps as well as postally used, but off the top of my head, that's the only example I can think of which gets specific. And in that case, I'd have to dig through the mountains of small print in Michel to see if there's any mention made of whether or not the gum has to be present (and hinge marks not present) on those CTO stamps.

I generally leave the gum in place on a CTO stamp unless there's something wrong with it. For example, if there are any adhesions other than a hinge mark, I'll soak off the gum to clean up the stamp. Some brands of hinges will cause the stamp to kind of pucker around the hinge, leaving the hinge marking visible from the front side of the stamp, so if I can see that I will soak the gum off of those stamps too. And later Albanian stamps are among those I end up soaking the most often . They often have a very shiny surface texture and that really shows up any hinge marking from the front. Into the bath they go!

Ryan

That's kind of sad, even Australia Post starting to issue trash

Australia Post has been issuing rubbish for quite a while.

However, "real" CTO's from Australia (particularly pre-decimals) should NEVER be soaked if they have clean gum. They are very collectable

I am happy I searched for this because my question is answered. I was debating in my head whether I should just soak a bunch of DDR CTOs that are stuck down to the page in an old album I purchased last year...the answer is above. Later I may go back to an old Czech collection that I set aside long ago for this very reason; I was reluctant to soak the CTO stamps that were hopelessly stuck on the album pages.

angore, I hesitated. I agree that they shouldn't be that different from any other used stamp. 9 times out of 10, the collections I buy with CTO stamps from Eastern European countries have stuck down stamps just because they have all that gum on them, and, of course, they are inevitably hinged. Also inevitably, trying to remove them from an album page means having to carefully try to remove them without thinning them, which is sometimes impossible. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just put the whole page in water and watch them float off the page.

If you look at a Scott catalog under Russia there is a note regarding CTOs. They note that the values for used shown are for CTOs and that postally used are worth more.

For me I would include them in my albums, preferably without the gum, and replace them later if found a postally used copy.

I can't help but wonder why they would print on gummed paper if they are going to be sold at cut rates to dealers. Save the expense of having gummed paper!

Things that make me go, 'hmmm!"